Consider it Done!

I purchased 4 hours of organizing from Christi Gamble, owner of Consider it Done, via Groupon and paid $75 for the service. Ms. Gamble was very pleasant to talk to and seemed to understand exactly what I needed when I explained which rooms I needed immediate help on with the idea that I had a lot more organizing that needed to be done later on. I explained that I had company coming for Thanksgiving and needed help immediately. We agreed upon a date the week before Thanksgiving, the 15th or 16th of November. Ms. Gamble didn't show up, didn't cancel or reschedule, and didn't answer her phone or respond to messages. My Thanksgiving plans didn't go as well as I hoped. Her failure to appear caused me some difficulty. I decided to try again in December since I had paid for the service and I still needed help. When I finally was able to talk to her, she told me about personal problems she was having and described multiple fights with her abusive mother that injured her, damaged property and resulted in calls to the police, restraining orders, etc. I understand that what she described would be distressing, but was still disappointed she had not contacted me when she had said she would. Christi said because of all the stress and emotional disturbance she had to take a little time off to cope with all that had happened and to get her own house in order. She said she positively would call me between Christmas and New Year's. I agreed. I'd already paid and really did need some help. She didn't call the last week in December, nor did she call the first weeks in January. This tale goes on and on, but the result was NOTHING was done. She never showed up, never called to cancel or reschedule. I never had altercations with her and getting my money back was no problem because I had not paid her directly. I purchased from Groupon. I contacted Groupon and told them what had occurred and promptly received a refund (actually a Groupon credit.). I am only disappointed in Groupon because they continue to sell Consider It Done services.

We hired Ms. Gamble to help us clean our garage. We needed her on a weekend, so we had to book the appointment about 4 weeks in advance. She was offering a back-to-school special ($40/an hr). She was very pleasant on the phone as we discussed our needs. She recommended a 4-hour appointment (this is her minimum). My wife and I thought we might need two days in a row, depending on how much we got done the first day. With this in mind, Ms. Gamble offered us an additional 10% discount if we would for prepay with PayPal for 4 hours of services. She sent me a bill via PayPal and I promptly paid it. She also asked me to email her my address. I thought I'd already given this to her but emailed it anyway. I knew she had my phone number since she had called me back to make the appointment. We booked her for a Friday (so that we could continue on Saturday if need be). Fast-forward nearly 4 weeks: I've already paid and I've taken a vacation day to tackle the garage. That Friday morning, we are concerned because we realize we never received a courtesy call or email to confirm/remind us of our appointment. So I call Ms. Gamble to make sure she's planning on coming. I leave a message. She replies via text messaging and says she is sick and can't make it and apologizes for not calling, saying that she lost a lot of her appointments in her phone. She offers to reschedule and to give us an extra hour at no charge.I was frustrated--having wasted a vacation day--and was reluctant to do this and debate awhile about rescheduling versus getting a refund . I text her back later that week to accept the rescheduled date, but by then she doesn't have that date available anymore. I tell her I'll just take a refund since our schedules won't work and she says I can't get a refund b/c it has been more than 30 days since I paid! Furthermore, she says that she has since checked her records and never got my email with our address, so she considered it a no-show cancellation subject to her cancellation charge of $100!I double-checked and realized that the email I thought I sent her did not actually get through (apparently got stuck in my Outbox and then got deleted). Nevertheless, I was under the impression we had a confirmed appointment. She certainly could have called me see if there was a technical problem and to confirm our address! Later on, she tells me that she did try to confirm via email. I never got that message so I ask her to forward the original message. When she forwards it, I quickly realize the problem: she sent the original message to herself (i.e. her own email address) instead of to me! I pointed this out and she claims that she does that "all the time and then forwards it to the correct address." Well, I have no evidence of receiving it and she has no evidence of sending it to the right address.At this point, it is reasonable to chalk this up to miscommunication. BUT...she offers to reschedule for another Friday and I accept.Fast forward to the next appointment. I've taken another vacation day. This time I have dotted every "i" and crossed every "t." I have confirmed the appointment and even signed her contract and sent it back to her. But she never shows up that Saturday for her 12pm appointment. I have called throughout the day and received no response, which I attribute to her having a prior appointment. But a couple hours pass and she never answers my calls. Then I check my email around 2pm or so and she has sent me an email saying she lost her phone at her client's house that morning and didn't know how to call me. She apologized profusely and again offered a free hour of services. She went on to say that storms were predicted and she had decided to cancel our appointment because she feared for her pets! I respond with great disappointment, given this is the second time I've wasted a vacation day--but tell her to just come the next day (Saturday) and block off enough time to work the 4 hours I paid for plus the extra time she offered for free. She replies to that email with a demand for more money since "she only book appointments in 4-hr increments"--so I will need to pay for three more hours to get 1 free hour. I tell her nevermind about the free hours--we're not planning on paying any more money, so just come for the 4 hours we paid for. She replied with a belligerent attitude, telling me this whole mess is my fault and she doesn't technically owe me anything because "I cancelled/no-showed/never confirmed" our original appointment. Seriously?! After I pre-paid 4 weeks in advance and called to see if she was coming? On two separate occasions where SHE cancelled as a result of sickness and disorganization?! She say (via email) this obviously isn't going to work and she'll just send me a refund. I demand a FULL refund (since she had mentioned her $100 "cancellation" fee before) and she agrees. This all happened the week before Thanksgiving 2011. It took three months to get the first half of my refund, and about two months to get the other half.It's possible some of this was a clash of personalities, but this ordeal was just too much headache and drama! I have no idea how well she does her job, but her communication was certainly lacking and unprofessional. If you hire Consider It Done, for goodness sake read her contract in full and know what you're getting into!